What kind of a future for (spatial) planning? A Western European Perspective

Abstract

Planning at the start of the third millennium deals with a completely different world from the one in which many of the basic ways of thought of the profession were founded. The old planning which we learned in school seems somehow less relevant today, when so much of the official rethoric is of privatisation, deregulation and competitiveness in a "global" world (Friedmann, 1997). This article outlines some of the dimensions of a new planning called for by these trends. The focus is on attitudes/qualities, planners need to possess in order to cope with the challenges and developments the Western World is faced with and to be more sensitive to issues of equity and social justice. Some key trends with respect to the evolution in society are identified. As these trends do have an impact on the demands for space, location and characteristics of places, their spatial impacts on urban areas and rural areas are touched upon. The responses planning and the planner gave to these trends the last three decades are very briefly mentioned.  Spatial planning is about setting substantive and procedural frameworks and principles to guide the location and quality of development and physical infrastructure. It consists of a set of governance practices for conceiving, developing, implementing and monitoring strategies, plans, policies and projects, and for regulating the location, timing, type and form of development (Healey, 1997). These practices are not just shaped by the dynamics of economic relations and development also by in the cultural production of conceptions of gender, race, ethnicity, physical ability and age division. Planning and the planner are not neutral in this respect. In the first place the planner plays the role of referee determining who gets what, when and how. In the second place the planner has to make clear who he speaks for and who he works for. This article is biased to the extent that it is written from a Western European perspective and also from the accumulated experience of the author's professional planning practice.